Designed to ruin your weekend? Well then check this out:

[size=4]Unpleasant Truths[/size=4]
[b]A conservative view of the world today.[/b]

One of the disorienting things for an Old World conservative settling in America is that over here, even conservatives are optimistic. This really won't do. A conservative ought to be a pessimist, at least about human nature, human society, and the prospects for improving them. The facile cheeriness of the lefty world-perfecters are not for us, with their New Soviet Man, their Socialist Spiritual Civilization, their City of the Sun, their coming reign of peace, justice, and absolute equality. We are more of the temper of H. P. Lovecraft, who began one of his short stories with the arresting observation that: "Life is a hideous thing."
 
In an attempt to redress the balance, to tug my conservative American friends back towards a properly gloomy outlook on events, I have given over today's column to a list of unpleasant truths. This is stuff you don't want to hear, but that, if you are a true conservative, you cannot dispute. Remember the slogan of the 1964 Goldwater campaign**: "In your heart you know he's right."

[b][u]Most of us will die in poverty[/u].[/b] There is no way that systems devised to provide for mid-20th-century retirees will be able to cope in the mid-21st, with imploding demographics and a centenarian on every block. "Defined-contribution" pension plans will have to be baled out by the federal government, if private enterprise is to survive. The dollars we get from them will therefore be massively devalued. Since there is no one to bale out Social Security, benefits will soon be restricted to citizens more than 80 years old. Similarly for Medicare. In fact...

- continued -

[b][u]Quality health care for all is not possible[/u].[/b] Quality health care is what rich people get. (Actually, according to one of the depressingly tiny number of rich people I know, even they have trouble getting it.) The rest of us must wait on line to be misdiagnosed by ill-trained, paperwork-swamped, litigation-shy doctors, assisted by nurses imported from the less hygienic parts of the Third World, and unionized hospital staff with no-way-you-can-get-me-fired attitudes. This could only change if the U.S.A. devoted her entire Gross National Product to health care; and even then, it probably wouldn't stay changed for long.

[b][u]Pop culture is filth[/u].[/b] It is now completely degenerate. Why do you never hear anyone humming a current pop song any more? Because none of them is hummable, or even worth bothering to remember. What is the main topic on TV sitcoms and "dramedies"? You know what. Why do you stand in the aisle in Blockbuster muttering to yourself: "There isn't a single damn movie in here I want to watch"? Because Hollywood produces nothing but crap, crap, crap.

[b][i]Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait.[/i][/b] The saddest true thing ever said (by Henri Estienne, 1531-98). Translation: "If youth only knew, if age only could."

[b][u]The environment is collapsing[/u].[/b] The U.S. will get the blame for it, of course, but the main culprit is the Third World. Take a trip to China: The air is a soupy smog, even in quite remote places. Vast dust storms sweep periodically across the north of the country, sometimes continuing right on across the Pacific. (And in one case last year, the Atlantic, too!) The rivers run purple, orange, and turquoise. People tell me India is worse. The inhabitants of Africa are busily stripping their continent of all vegetation, having already pretty much exterminated the fauna, except in a few tourist reservations. The oceans are being fished out, and near-earth orbit is filling up with lethal junk.

- continued -

[b][u]Science has stopped[/u].[/b] None of the really major scientific advances that you have been reading about since 1970 as "just over the horizon" is ever going to happen. Cheap fusion power; the colonization of Mars; artificial intelligence; supersonic air travel you can afford; contact with extraterrestrial civilizations; the conquest of cancer, tooth decay, or the common cold; fuhgeddaboutit.

[b][u]Not all groups are equally good at all things[/u].[/b] East Asians will continue to win Olympic diving events, and runners of West African ancestry will continue to win the 100-meter dash. Similarly, nobody will ever be able to devise a test of knowledge or understanding on which groups with different population-genetic histories all record identical statistical profiles. You can have meritocracy, or you can have equality of outcomes by ancestry-group, but you can't have both. Which one do you want? It seems we have already made up our minds. Corollary.....

[b][u]Affirmative action is absolutely essential to social order[/u].[/b] Think about it.

[b][u]Socialism is popular[/u].[/b] Practically all of the Socialist Party platform on which Norman Thomas ran in 1928 has been implemented. Thomas himself noticed this as far back as 1962, exulting that: "The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of Socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly." Yet the main negative factors in the national life today, according to spokespersons for this country's largest political party, are corporate greed, tax cuts for the rich, and poverty-stricken old folk crying out for life-saving medications. Plainly we need still more socialism. Don't worry, we'll get it. Conversely...

- continued -

[b][u]Conservatism is dead[/u].[/b] No genuinely conservative policy will ever be enacted, ever again, by any U.S. government or the government of any important state. Great masses of ordinary Americans believe that "conservative" means "repressed fundamentalist freak." Why would they not believe this? Every medium of mass entertainment and mass information has been preaching it to them, over and over and over, for twenty years. [b]The Ronald Reagan of 1980, if he were to stride onto the national stage today, would be unelectable[/b]. Calvin Coolidge would be laughed out of public life, if by some bizarre accident he were permitted to wander into it. Even when large majorities of Americans favor a conservative policy, nothing will be done to implement it. For example....

[b][u]Nothing will be done about immigration[/u].[/b] Business leaders and economic decision-makers all believe (perhaps correctly) that mass immigration is the main reason for this country's continuing economic vitality. The Left sees poor immigrants as clients. Huge numbers of Americans are now "Hispanic," and believe that anti-immigration activists hate them. The Joint Chiefs have no intention of letting their commands be used to police the southern border, understanding perfectly well that they would never be allowed to open fire on anyone — which is the main thing that trained soldiers are trained to do, and the inability to do which leads to collapsing morale and cratering recruitment. (It is also, of course, the only thing that would have any actual effect.)

[b][u]Only Anglo-Saxon countries can do democracy[/u].[/b] The natural state of human society is despotism. If you tally up all the human lives that have ever been lived on this planet under organized systems of government, no more than five per cent were lived under consensual systems. Even to get up to five per cent, you have to include places like ancient Athens and Tudor England, which wouldn't pass muster as "democratic" by modern standards. In the last couple of centuries, practically all consensual systems have been Anglo-Saxon. Other cultures can fake it for a few decades, as France, Germany, and Japan are currently doing, but their hearts aren't really in it and they will swoon gratefully into the arms of a fascist dictator when one comes along. As a corollary of this...

[b][u]China will get stronger and richer, without moving one inch closer to constitutional government[/u].[/b] The Chinese Communist Party has got "over the hump" into a plateau of stability that, barring severe environmental catastrophe (see above), will last for decades. Rich and confident, unrestrained by electoral considerations or Judeo-Christian ethics, or any other kind of ethics, they will do all the things we dare not do: human genetic experimentation, culling of "useless mouths," militarization of space, minor wars of aggression, etc. In particular...

- continued -

[b][u]Taiwan will be re-united with the Motherland....by some combination of economic carrot and military stick[/u].[/b] The U.S. will grumble ineffectually, up to the point where the Chinese ambassador loses his patience and asks the U.S. Secretary of State point-blank: [b]"How many cities are you willing to lose over this? We ourselves are willing to lose three or four."[/b] Then we will stop grumbling.

[b][u]Something inconceivably horrible will happen in the Middle East[/u].[/b] Probably the following: The Arabs will commit some huge, gross atrocity against Israel. Surviving Israelis will respond by massacring the Palestinian Arabs, and perhaps erasing a couple of Arab capitals. 100 years of peace in the Middle East will follow.

[b][u]The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are saddled up and ready to ride[/u].[/b] Just to remind you, their names are: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. No. 4 will presumably always be with us, but at least we have got Nos. 1, 2, and 3 pretty much fenced off in sub-Saharan Africa, right? The chance that you or me, or your kids or mine, will die in a genuine mass-mobilization-type, carriers-going-down-with-all-hands-type, flattened-cities-type war, or from starvation, or in some horrid medieval-type, communal-grave-type, 1918-flu-type plague, is actuarially insignificant, right? Well, believe it if you like, but your belief has no foundation more substantial than wishful thinking. History suggests that it is most likely false.

[b][u]The next version of MicroSoft Windows will be even buggier and more counterintuitive than the last[/u].[/b] That one you know perfectly well, of course — I don't know why I bothered to include it. Further bad news on this front: e-mail will be rendered completely useless by spam, all that wonderful free information on the web will gradually be shut off into fee-paying sites, and NRO will start posting my photograph again.

[b][u]Poverty and hardship build character; prosperity and security destroy it[/u].[/b] Look around you.

[b][u]The U.S. constitution is incompatible with a war on terrorism[/u].[/b] It is absurdly easy to commit a terrorist act in the U.S.A. This state of affairs could be changed only by abandoning key constitutional protections. We shall be very reluctant to do this; but if deaths from terrorism reach a certain number, we shall do it anyway. That number has either seven or eight digits.

[b][u]Justice is dead[/u].[/b] As the last of the generation of judges who actually believe in the law heads into retirement, the administration of justice will be divvied up between avaricious trial lawyers and ideology-addled graduates of lefty law schools. Their morale destroyed by "brutality" and "profiling" hysteria, police forces will sink into corruption and paper-pushing. Ambitious public prosecutors will concentrate on framing up law-abiding citizens with "hate crime," "corporate corruption," "dangerous product" (guns, fast food) or "child abuse" charges. Actual crime — murder, rape, robbery, burglary, and assault — will skyrocket, but it will be illegal to talk about it.

[b][u]We are living in a golden age[/u].[/b] The past was pretty awful; the future will be far worse. Enjoy!

While trying not to remember the counter-slogan put out by the LBJ campaign: "In your guts you know he's nuts."

[url]http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire080202.asp[/url]

Eric The(HaveALovelyWeekend,Y'all!)Hun[>]:)]

Thanks Hun...and I woke up with heartburn and diarrhea this morning too!

Gee Eric, thanx for sparkle-in' up my day.


Should I kill myself now or wait until after work?

And I hope you have a great weekend too. [smoke]

Wow, everything I go over in my mind every day was just confirmed.  I'll either be under my bed in a fetal position crying, or out playing in traffic if anyone needs me...

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

The King is dead; Long live the king.

hahahah. Excuse me while I go throw up.

EDITED TO ADD:
On a more positive note; not everything he said was right and not everything he said was wrong.

Yet another Unpleasant Truth.

[img]www.funnyjunk.com/pic/0206.jpg[/img]

Thanks Capt. Bring Down

Hey Duppy, Go look up the meaning of the word "meek".  From your sig line.

Ben

I bet you by the time you are 40 years old you will change that line to say ,"The meek shall inherit the earth" And I will wager my life savings on it.

EDITED TO ADD:
But don't  wait to Inherit the earth, Be "MEEK" and GET SOME Today!!

EDITED TO ADD FURTHER:

ETH is meek and he owns a whole farm.
SEE!!!

and one more truth.....

Reading this forum can depress the hell out of you!!!

[b]Quoted:
Designed to ruin your weekend? Well then check this out:[/b][b]A conservative view of the world today.[/b]

Gee Eric, have you got any other good news?



Seriusly speaking about your post - Several of my friends need to read your post. I will send it to them.

Bill

Bring down my ass. It's time to realize that the truth is the truth. Yes some are true and some aren't. The problem is more is coming true. In the mind I have been in lately I say the Hell wit it all and we need to fend for ourselves.
The Government, State or City don't give a crap about you unless you pay for their type campaign. Just look at gun control and your rights has a citizen.
Don't make enough to take care of yourself well suffer. But allow those who steal millions from the working to keep it or not go to jail for it.

This goes with all the above statements made. There is no place for the low or even middle income people. The world due to industry will cause our Environment to be destroyed. We will become a 3rd world country sooner or later at the rate things are going or destroy our society altogether. Well that is unless you will have enough money and power to survive. Most likely on another planet.

Those of you keeping up in the member forum know what I am talking about Sorry.

EDP(the disgusted and pissed)Medic

Derb is never upbeat about anything.  I used to dislike his stuff very much because (1) he is such a damned pessimist and (2) his prognostications are almost always wrong.  But I have come to appreciate his shrewd observations.  He can see what is happening now, but for some reason is blind to the fact that trends can change.

You forgot to mention that Whitney Houston won't return all my e-mails, calls and letters.[BD]

I don't worry about what is happening now. What I do worry about is what will happen when they are fixing?? it.  

That is what scares the hell out of me. History shows people who are trying to fix the problem which they themselves created always assign blame to the wrong cause.

IOW I am afraid that when they are trying to put it back together they will say well, THE DOI didn't work and the Constitution didn't work. They won't stop to realize that it is they who failed the Constitution or they who failed reality.

Just my .02 cents worth.

Ben

OOOOOOOOOOOOKay......

Well, I guess I'll start getting my personal effects in order, as by my calculations we'll all be dead by this time next Tuesday...

Cool! At least it'll be a short workweek!

Geez, Eric. Got anything more cheerful to post?

I'm hard pressed to see where he's wrong about anything!

Been to the Doctor lately? [:D]

Eric The(ImmigrationReform?Heh-heh-heh)Hun[>]:)]

It just goes to show that Conservatives are just as unthinking as Liberals...

Human nature is NOT evil-unless you are a victim of it.

Human nature IS [i]SELFISH[/i].

Good and evil are imposed upon this by society.

The Golden Rule "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is known universallly by men of all cultures around the world.

Yet its existance is inherently selfish.

Do you want to be murdered? robbed? raped? No.

But they are the easiest way to make a living. And in a "state of nature" without the constraints of a society, just the comparitive natures of the bandit and his target to consider, the theif, the murderer, can have everything his heart desires.

Untill a bigger, stronger, better bandit takes it from him.

Hobbs was right in his effects but was wrong in ascribing a concept like "evil" too it. A successful raid is very good to the raider, and only evil to the victim. However, snce everyone in time would become the victim this led to the development of "empathy" and of understanding how others felt, not just yourself.

This consideration for others has to be taught, and it can also be untaught through conditioning. Socieopaths don't have this sense of what others might go through, cause they have never been taught or have been conditioned to repress it later.

Groups that figured out this mutual cooperation enjoyed higher security, and utimately massed more goods, and had more surviving offspring than the loan bandits did. But this again was the product of the idividuals in the group learning to defer individual short term gratification for long term goals-utimately even for things that only MIGHT happen, but would be catistrophic if they did. Its all still driven by the same profit/risk eqation, just modified by experience, culture being just a means of preserving experience for future generations to prevent them for having to pay the costs of relearning the same experience again.

Yeah, yeah, but...at least the Assault Weapons Ban will be finally gone when Horseman No.4 gets done ridin' off into the sunset.

I subscribe to about half of your "truths".

Not going to address all these "truths" though I have differences with some more of them, but this one is simply ridiculous.  It packs together ideas with no scientific basis (cold fusion), ideas that have economic problems (Mars missions and supersonic passenger travel), ideas that don't depend on science at ALL (contacting an ET civilization...it ain't a scientific advance, it's dependant on whether one EXISTS) and others that likely will occur, such as a cure for tooth decay.
Very sloppy and scientifically ignorant.

[b]The signature line from Benjamin0001
There ain't nary a creature alive who can outrun a greased Scotsman.-- Groundskeeper Willy[/b]


Ben -- I have been dying to ask this -- Is the running Scotsman greased all over, or is it just one [b]DELICATE PORTION[/b] of his anatomy that has been greased, and that is what makes him run?

Bill

Hahahah, To me it means this:
No its Greased as in Soused, Inebriated, Intoxicated, 3 Sheets to the wind, drunk.

In the series its something different.


I always thought it had a slight Double-Entendre to it. And being Scotch-Irish I can relate to my first take on it.

Ben

Dude are you serious? Why would you stalk that nasty skank? You want Bobby Brown to kick your ass too?



Back on topic...


....I'm a born pessimist. And don't disagree with much of what this guy says.

An appropriate quote from a movie we all love........


"I am..in a world... of shit!"

Most of the really substancial events in science have been realized through extensive trial and error or outright accident.  All the easy advances are here already and those to follow will be achieved at an exponentially higher level of effort.

The devolution of society as a whole is a result of willing separation from God and His morals.  Humanity will continue to embrace itself and individual rights will continue to be sucked into the state government.  Look up! your redemtion draweth nigh!  Planerench (ready to punch-) out!

Eric, I have been saying these things in my own convoluted way for awhile. I guess you are more eloquent than I.[:D]

Those sound more like opinions...

One good thing about being a pessimist; I never get let down.

I believe some of these items.  There is so much info out there re. conspiracies, NWO, bible prophecies etc that it's mind boggling.

If I could find a legal way to stop paying taxes I would.  I would much rather manage my own retirement/medical fund.

One thing no one (at least that I've heard) is saying is the possibility of us military retirees losing our retirement when the SHTF.  The public outrage would be extreme.  My outrage would be worse.

Oh yeah?



and this;


[url=http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_642813.html?menu=news.latestheadlines]Scientist blames failure of monsoon on US warplanes[/url]

Mister Hun, you should not be surprised at any of the accurate statements from your lead in thread...





What do I need to add to the above?

  [img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/biggrin2.gif[/img]

Nothing to do, but sit back and watch.